Items of the academy / learning
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What philosophers do
The following is an excerpt from an essay I’m working on, meant to explain to non-philosophers what it is philosophers do. Philosophy is the search for wisdom, and wisdom has two large components: what is (or “the True”), and what is valuable (or “the Good”). To be wise, you need not only to have skills Continue reading
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Potted plants vs. forests
Neal Gabler, over a year ago, in the NYT: The post-idea world has been a long time coming, and many factors have contributed to it. There is the retreat in universities from the real world, and an encouragement of and reward for the narrowest specialization rather than for daring — for tending potted plants rather Continue reading
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Wolff, The Ideal of the University
“And I for one will break a lance for the theory of the great tradition at least as one element in an undergraduate curriculum. We deal here in matters of intellectual taste, about which there is much disputing, but no deciding. I cannot truthfully claim that men are inevitably spiritually crippled by their unfamiliarity with Continue reading
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Kitcher’s view on science & the humanities
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the topic – most of it myopic, in my estimation – but Philip Kitcher, in an essay in the New Republic, contributes a perspective that is informed, clear, and judicious. As usual. Excerpt, from the conclusion: We are finite beings, and so our investigations have to Continue reading
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Comments on a couple of nonphilosophers doing some philosophy
Believe me when I say I am not one of those narrow-minded disciplinarians who believe knowledgeable people should stick to their own turf and never meddle in other people’s business. Indeed, one of my chief disappointments is that we live in a time when so few people are willing to let their attention and intellect Continue reading
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Philosophy’s job
Philosophy’s job is to take you from what merely seems puzzling into what really is puzzling. Continue reading
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Value of the liberal arts
(Recently I was invited to speak to our academic advisors on the value of the liberal arts to today’s students. I thought a couple of readers out there might find it interesting … so here it is.) “WHY DO I NEED THAT, AND WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH IT? GETTING SOMEWHERE THROUGH THE Continue reading
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Please join my campaign for illiteracy
Begin today. Find a child in your neighborhood, and unlearn them reading. “[Writing] will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it; they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember Continue reading
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Who ARE these people?!
It’s no news to anyone that higher education is under pressure to adapt. Some of the pressure comes from within the university, from either a social-sciency direction (like the book Academically Adrift), or from a humanistic direction (like Menand’s Marketplace of Ideas). These are intelligent, well-intentioned, and interesting critiques of the current ideals and methods Continue reading
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Teaching and learning the humanities (part 1)
We lack a convincing account of what it is to teach or learn anything. If we narrow the question to specific skills or factual recall, of course, it’s easy: consider teaching/learning how to ride a bike, or reciting the names of the U.S. presidents. We know what it is to teach these things, and how Continue reading
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New job
Some readers may already know or have suspected that I have a new job (or rather one added on to the old one). Now I am an Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. It’s expected among academics that professors who move into administration have some explaining to do: Are they washed Continue reading
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The grades are in …
…and so ends another academic year. As I related in an earlier post, it has been a thrilling term in some ways, with an uninterrupted flow of ideas, questions and confusions. My only complaint has been not enough leisure to try to pursue a few of the items with greater care. I hope over the Continue reading
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Ridiculous erudition
As I see it, there are two big events within professorhood (that is, after getting hired in the first place, and before giving it up). The first is getting tenure, when the threat of being fired is removed. The second is receiving a final promotion to full professor, where the threat of not getting promoted Continue reading
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Talking at BYU
I visited BYU on Thursday, spoke to their Philosophy Club on “Hume, Kant, and Ultimate Reality,” and spoke to their faculty about the reality of individuals in Spinoza. I had a great time, and was happy to build upon the friendships with faculty members there. The talk about “ultimate reality” grew from these musings about Continue reading
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Truth in philosophy
Truth in philosophy, though not to be despaired of, is so complex and many-sided, so multi-faced, that any philosopher’s work, if it is to have any unity and coherence, must at best emphasize some aspects of the truth, to the neglect of others which may strike another philosopher with more force. – P. F. Strawson, Continue reading
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Well, I made it
The University of Utah graciously invited me to try once again to lecture on Nietzsche without fainting. (See the story of my earlier failure here.) So yesterday I visited their campus, lectured to my friend’s existentialism class, and managed to remain ‘perpendicular to the earth’ for a faculty lecture. I had a great time. I Continue reading
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The genius of Geraldine
So if you’re in the knitting business, at some point in the process of turning wool into a sweater you will need to take a large, washer-like disk of steel and punch little notches into its outer rim, for some use in the process which I do not know. You will gradually collect a zillion Continue reading
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Well, now: THAT was interesting
I was at the U of Utah yesterday, and had a great time in a number of activities. I visited my friend Mariam’s class, and we debated whether the evolutionary account of religious inclinations should cause a believer to doubt. Then I had lunch with six engaging grad students, and visited Elijah Millgram’s Nietzsche class, Continue reading
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Because I would not stop for Death…
… he kindly dropped by my office for a photo opp. This is William Holloway, Philosophy major, completing a creative assignment for another class. Continue reading
Huenemanniac 